Shitkilling

Arash Allahverdi

comecome and do drugsbring the drugs and do itdrinkdrink the wateras if semen drink the water

drink and pisspiss on the office ceramic tilesdon't tell your colleague you pissedtell him this is orange juiceyour colleague will cheer upand say real friends share drinksand there are consequencesbut don't worrytell liessleeptake lorazepam and sleep in the officethink of hips in your sleepthink of the capacities of hips

ponderponder and fleeflee into the streets and bazaarsclimb onto the curbstand there and singsing and say notsay not I know not singingtalkand eschew the fellowship of the ignoble and the envious malignerand be never dolefuland rub my compound elixir of lobster dregs and yogurtand ergot fungi liquidson your skinon your penison your hands and hipsso their harm won't befall youand thou shalt liveso you will harm not even an antruband bend overshove your mouth into the ant's earand utter to himthere are eight paradisesand seven skies and four gateswhere art thou now O ant?

the ant crawled into the hole amazed and mysteriousthe four angels rushed towards youtowards youto take hold of your four cornersif you don't believe in paradiseand take you to your father-in-lawand then you will vaguely seeyou will see the same ant is reclining next to your father-in-law"son, if there is not paradise, why do you say there are eight paradises," your father-in-law says laughing

you yourself know you have done drugsyou go and read Marx and Benjamin and Blanchot

you feel like it'll kill you to go work again tomorrowand your father-in-law doesn't know you did drugsyou will finally die in the officeyou know it yourselfand Bahram knows this tooEnsieh knows thisFeo knows thisAti knows thisAnd you understand these thingsand you are afraid your jubilant king won't hear the story of your perishing

but God himself knows

you also know that God himself knowsand he knows that he himself knowsand he knows that the Lord brings thousands of likenesses

forthand he himself knows that youare not even one of these likenessesand he himself knows that youare only scum, only excrementand you yourself know that in excrement—and the excrement knows it itself—there are a thousand secretsnot even one is in a thousand rosesand death to the noseand death to the eye that just won't believe

and death to your childhoodand death to your adolescence and youthhe who has no babe must do schoolhe who has no money

must get accepted at public universitymust not take up drugs and chicksmust become a respectable personhe knows these thingsand he who has moneyis no shithead to do schooland be an employeeand not have a non-cultured chickand death to his nosedeath to his eyes

death to his bodydeath to his penisand such are the characteristics of the crowds

climb down from the curb

come and do drugscome and sniffand be warned that the nose is not just for dyingcome and shitand fix your eyes on your excrementzoom ingazeand place your excrement on a gold platecaress it

pick it up and put it on your headimagine that you are bringing me a dowryimagine that you are carrying yourself in your coffinbring itbring it so a thousand mysteries I will clarify for youTehran is hell

and this will be your fatethis neighborhood is helland this will be your fate

come and have sexhave sexdo drugs and have sexget connectedacceptthinktouchrubget warmget wethave sex

get squashedget shitget composedget compressedthis is my most prisoned poemthis is my most poisoned poemthis is my most presumed poem

you are entering my Iranian poemyou are violating my Iranian poemand this is my own faultI am born of a slitI have slit myself from before myselfand I slit everythingand every slit deserves a cockdeserves a cock

deserves a violationdeserves an entrydeserves an employerand thisis what I deserve.

climb down from the curb hateful excrementcome let's go do drugscomeGod's guarding uscome

Arash Allahverdi was born in 1983 in Shiraz. He started writing poetry at the age of fifteen. His first book, Fury, was published in an electronic format in 2007. His second book, The Book of the Blood, was planned to be published in 2010, but it failed to obtain a publication license. As a result it was published as an e-book in the following year. He publishes some of his poems on his weblog. He edits a website dedicated to contemporary Persian poetry.

Alireza Taheri Araghi received his M.F.A. from the University of Notre Dame. His translations into English have appeared or are forthcoming in RHINO, Asymptote, and Tripwire. His fiction has been published or is forthcoming in Green Mountains Review, Notre Dame Review, and elsewhere.

Thade Correa (b. 1983) hails from northwest Indiana. He received his M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Notre Dame, having previously studied at the University of Chicago and Indiana University, Bloomington. His poetry, translations, and essays have appeared (or are forthcoming) in various venues, including Bitter Oleander, Moss Trill, Tripwire, Poetry City U.S.A., Vol. 4, Bird's Thumb, The Ostrich Review, Actuary Lit, Prime Number, RHINO, Paragraphiti, The Bend, Re:Visions, Ibbetson Street, The Aurorean, and Modern Haiku. In 2012, a collection of his poetry garnered him an Academy of American Poets Prize. A composer and pianist as well as a writer, he currently publishes his music with Alliance Publications. He teaches English and music at Indiana University, Northwest and HGS Music Studios, respectively.